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Saturday, 19 January 2013

C.F. Møller Architects New Student Residence for University of Southern Denmark

The A.P. Møller Foundation has unveiled designs for a new student residence for the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) that is intended to be a landmark for both the University and the city of Odense when it opens in September 2015.

The new hall of residence will be built around the idea of good communities, providing accommodation to 250 students in three interconnected 14-storey buildings. This means that the complex has no rear side and presents a distinctive appearance in all 360 degrees. Along the outer edges of the building lie the student rooms, each of which, due to the twists and turns of the building, present a view of the countryside while preserving privacy from neighbouring rooms. Each room has its own private balcony, which both helps to make the residences attractive and also serves an energy function: the recessed balconies prevent too much sunlight entering the rooms, which means that considerable amounts of energy can be saved on cooling.As you move out of the room and towards the communal kitchen in the middle of the building, the areas become gradually more and more collective: a common living-room provides a transition to the community space and a social meeting-place serves the occupants of the small clusters of seven rooms each into which the residences are grouped. At the centre is the kitchen, which is common to the entire floor, and has a glass facade that ensures light and views in three directions. The top floor includes areas for common activities, namely music, drama, exercise or a library, as well as roof terraces for urban farming.